"THE CLASSICS, TRULY, NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE": BORN A RAMBLIN' MAN AND OTHER STORIES MICHEL LEE GARRETT

I only know Michel Lee Garret from her fiction and bio, but that's enough to realize she's a smart bad ass with heat. She is steadily planting a flag in crime fiction with her short work that puts a modern attitude to the classic style she celebrates. You can see what she is all about in the collection Born a Ramblin Man and Other Stories. Michel was kind enough to talk about her writing journey, her style, and her characters.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY: What made you decide to put a collection together?

MICHEL LEE GARRETT: I've been writing short fiction for about the last ten years, with the good fortune of getting my stories published in a number of great anthologies. At some point I was talking to JB Stevens, himself an excellent writer of crime and noir, and he encouraged me to start thinking about a collection. (Thanks JB!) Pulling together the manuscript let me bring together a number of my first-published stories alongside some newer pieces with some new characters I've been starting to develop. Seeing the collection come together, I realized, "Wow, I guess I'm really giving this whole 'writer' thing a proper go, huh?" 

S.M.: How did "Born a Ramblin' Man" get picked as a title story?

M.L.G: "Born a Ramblin' Man" first originated as a story about my recurring protagonist Raymond Reynolds, a country-singing vagabond who eventually grows into a private detective. A few years ago, Mark Westmoreland (another writer whom I admire) put out a call for submissions for crime fiction inspired by the Allman Brothers. I immediately thought of Ray because he was, truly, born a ramblin' man. Fast forward to putting the collection together, and it just made sense for "Born a Ramblin' Man" to kick off the collection and serve as the title story. It introduces us to young Ray, and it encapsulates all the themes the book speaks to: rambling, travelling, self-discovery, the promise and the sorrow of an outlaw life, and how our unjust society pushes so many people to the margins of life. 

S.M.: Your stories have a classic feel to them. Do you draw from any influences?

M.L.G.: I actually grew up mostly reading, like, English class lit. "The Great Gatsby" was always a favorite. Which, interestingly, I would argue, is a work of crime fiction, starring a bootlegger and culminating in a murder. I watched a lot of murder mystery shows with my mom growing up, which I think was a huge early influence on me. "Murder, She Wrote" was often on. "Psych" was also always a particular favorite, with its zany brand of pop culture references and buddy comedy. I have a great lot of classic noir, especially Raymond Chandler, which I think leaks into a lot of my work. The philosopher and novelist Albert Camus had a big impact on my worldview, and his absurdist brand of existential rebellion suffuses much of what I write. I've read a lot of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rodenbarr series, and I enjoy his blend of thievery and humor. My single favorite author, pretentiously enough, is Thomas Pynchon. His book "Inherent Vice" redefined for me what one could accomplish within the framework of the noir style. And I can't talk about my influences without talking about my dear friend T. Fox Dunham, an incredible author of horror, crime, and literary fiction. His book "Destroying The Tangible Illusion of Reality, or, Searching for Andy Kauffman" broke my brain in the best way. He's done so much to mentor me over the years. Everything I know about writing, really, I learned from Fox.

S.M.: What made Vegas pickpocket Cera Dieben a character worth returning to?

M.L.G.: She's just so much fun to write! She's selfish, completely reckless, completely self-centered, flying by the seat of her pants at all times, but she's talented, she's got grit, and she's got heart. She'll betray basically everyone she comes into contact with, but she never betrays herself. I have ambitions to someday expand her time in Vegas into a novel. We'll see.

S.M.: So you have ambitions to do a novel?

M.L.G.: Yes! I actually started writing short stories to practice for writing a novel I've been working on since 2014. It stars Raymond Reynolds, and takes place between the stories "Wolf in Wolf's Clothing" and "Inquire at Johnny's Diner" that appear in this collection. In the novel, he's still working as a reporter when the most unexpected person in the world walks into the newsroom: his old high school sweetheart, newly back in their hometown. And she has a tip that the district attorney has been covering for the local heroin dealer. As he tries to dig into this story to see if she's telling the truth, he ends up travelling further into the dark heart of small-town America than he ever planned to go. He's forced to ask himself is some corruption is too deeply rooted to ever be driven out, and what it means, when all else fails, to try to save yourself. I actually finished my fourth major draft of this novel last year, and plan to spend some time editing it as my major project for the spring and summer. More to come!

S.M.: Are there any other characters you'd like to return to?

M.L.G.: Many of the characters in this collection I have active plans for. Raymond Reynolds is my main character, and in addition to the seven stories he appears in here, I have many further adventures planned out for him. In one major work in progress, he actually crosses paths with Blake and Sylvia (from "Keep Your Fingers Crossed") and with Nicholas Tremaglio (from "Real Magic"). I also have further plans for Cera, both in Vegas, and later in Philly. I also have some other recurring character ideas who don't appear in this collection. If anything, I have too many characters I want to return to, too many ideas, and too little time. This is why I don't sleep.

S.M.: I'm impressed at how good your last lines are and how they often hit the core of the story. Do you have a sentence in mind to work for or is there another process?

M.L.G.: Thank you! My process is 100% organized chaos. I rarely plan or outline. Typically I just start writing and see where I end up. Then I usually have my wife read it and tell me why it sucks (love you, hun!) and then I try to make it suck less. At some point, it usually all comes together and I can pretend like I'd planned it that way from the start. Sometimes themes or ideas emerge naturally during initial drafting and editing, and then I work them in with more intention into later drafts. But the process is very much just chaos. I do like ending lines that encapsulate the story. I think it comes from my background studying poetry, and my love of the sonnet, where having a thematically concluding couplet is baked into the form. So I do often try to accomplish something similar with my final lines, but it usually doesn't come together until two or three drafts in.

S.M.: You've operated as both a writer and editor of short fiction. What makes a strong short story?

M.L.G.: Character is the most important. A cool plot is great, but plot is really a consequence of character. So if you don't have a strong sense of who your characters are and why they're making their decisions the way they are, you don't have a plot. Everything else is secondary to me. Pacing, plot structure, narrative voice. These are all important, but I've found if you have interesting characters and a clear sense of who they are, then everything else tends to fall in place pretty naturally. You've got to give the reader someone to get invested in — either rooting for them to succeed, rooting for them to fail, or, my personal favorite, feeling conflicted and not being able to look away. Then give them something to do: solve the murder, steal the money, get the revenge. Throw some other interesting characters in their way. Then just see what happens. Take as long as it takes to get to the end, then see if you can get there with more precision and purpose. And, to borrow from Raymond Chandler, when all else fails, have someone walk into the room with a gun. The classics, truly, never go out of style.